


Melancholy

by moonlitfog



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Male Friendship, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-06
Updated: 2012-05-06
Packaged: 2017-11-04 22:15:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/398776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonlitfog/pseuds/moonlitfog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim is sad, Bones wants to comfort him.<br/>Another Buckle-up meme prompt fill for ageofalejandro. This was the prompt:<br/>"Something melancholy, please. Maybe Bones finds Jim sitting on the edge of a pier on a foggy day, just sort of lost in thought (maybe it's his brother's birthday and he has no idea where Sam is, or perhaps that of his mother's). Or whatever. Plot's up to filler."<br/>Again, no beta. This is unremittingly sad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Melancholy

Len was worried. Jim had starting acting odd over the weekend. He’d been slightly manic (well, manic for him), pacing, muttering, checking his email and comm constantly. He’d seemed to ratchet up in tension until he looked like he was going to snap. Then suddenly, he’d disappeared this evening.

Len had looked everywhere for the man but couldn’t find him. Through diligent work, asking around and comming everyone they knew in common, he’d finally traced Jim to the roof of their own dorm. He went through the fire door and peered around, finally spotting Jim, sitting on an air conditioner vent, legs dangling and kicking while he stared up at the moon through the fog that was creeping in.

Len slowly walked over and climbed up to sit beside Jim. He stared up at the moon, too, and watched wisps of vapor drift by. The fog was thickening, and it was lending a saline scented chill to the air. A breath of a breeze drifted through, stirring the fog into eddies and ripples, making the moon look mysteriously amorphous.

He looked at Jim, who was so lost in his thoughts he hadn’t even noticed Len sit by him. He cleared his throat, and when Jim flicked his eyes toward him, he leaned into Jim, bumping shoulders.

“What’s up, kid?”

Jim was silent, returning to his contemplation of the heavens. He swallowed, then shook his head.

Len softened his voice, lowering it to a soothing rumble. “C’mon, Jim. Something’s wrong. Talk to me.”

Jim’s mouth tightened and he shook his head slightly again, but then he sighed and ducked his head to stare as he rubbed the knuckles of his left hand with the opposing hand’s thumb. Len waited. He’d made the offer; the best way to get Jim to answer was to allow him time to marshal his thoughts, give him time to decide he wanted to talk and then let him go at his own pace.

Finally he answered. “You know I have a brother, right?”

Len shook his head. “No, I didn’t. You don’t talk about your family much.”

Jim grunted. “Well, I have an older brother. Sam. He… left.” Jim swallowed again. “He left because he’d finally just had enough. Went out to live his own life. He was 14. I was 10. He wouldn’t take me with him, said he couldn’t take care of two of us. He always swore I’d see him again, that he’d come back someday.”

He broke off and stared up at the moon again. It was now a haloed crescent adrift in a luminous sea, washed by waves of ice crystals. As a curl of vapor drifted between them, Jim looked over at Len and twitched an angry grimace.

“He never did come back. This weekend I realized I have access to all kinds of resources. So, I started looking for him. I finally found him today.”

Silent again, he rubbed over his knees in an unconscious need for comfort.

“Where is he?” Len asked, hoping Jim would be able to reconcile with the man.

Jim smiled grimly. “Up in Oregon. A place called Halfway. He’d been drag racing. Guess he wasn’t so good at it. He didn’t survive the crash.”

“Oh, God, Jim.” Words weren’t adequate. He reached over, pulling Jim to him, holding him while they watched the fog blot out the stars, enshrining them in an otherworldly, sepulchral gloom. Jim leaned his head on Len’s shoulder as a lone tear tracked down his cheek.

**Author's Note:**

> It should go without saying that I don't know or own or profit from these characters. I'm just amusing myself. I apologize for the comma-abuse and other grammar sins. If you see something that needs to be corrected and you feel like telling me, I'll be happy to fix it.


End file.
